Do you hear music in your head?

The last few weeks I’ve introduced my 3^rd and 4^th graders to the activity I call, “Let’s Make a Band!” I assign a group of 3-5 students to a ‘band’ and guide them through the steps of choosing a band name, a style (or styles) of music, and instruments to use in their band. It’s funny to see how art reflects life. Some groups immediately get to working on a name and democratically sharing their ideas, other groups are more like real bands: at least one person gets mad and wants to quit, and everybody wants to be the drummer. Before the students get involved with the instruments, they must have lyrics written to a song.

            No matter the age, it is not always easy to just write a song on the spot. “How do I write a song?” is the question I encourage the kids to ask me before releasing them to the assignment. This can be achieved by remembering the preliminary activity of ARRANGMENT. We took a song that we all knew (in our case it was the African game song “Kye Kye Kule” SAY chay-chay-coo-lay) and changed the lyrics. It’s really a form of PARODY, but it can help get the brain thinking about creating something original using something that is familiar.

            What amazes me is to see the artists that want to go ‘solo.’ At least one or two students in class of about 25 have these ideas churning through their minds. Finally giving them a piece of paper and guidance gives them the opportunity to splurge their ideas into reality. Do you have a songwriter in your house? Encourage them to develop those skills, along with the reading and writing skills that are reinforced by songwriting. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the worksheet that I use with my students or want to take it a step further and enroll your child (or yourself) in songwriting development lessons, contact me by email: justin@songharper.com or call 704-600-5138